All I know for sure is he's been killing my buddies."
"Science Team? You think he was responsible, sabotage, maybe?".
Their conversation also hints that the Marines mistakenly believe Freeman (and by extension, the whole Black Mesa Science Team) intended to cause the Resonance Cascade. Also in the same chapter two Marines can be heard talking about Freeman and their proposed revenge for killing so many of their friends, ignoring the irony of what they themselves had been doing. Their anger toward him was exemplified by several sets of graffiti seen in the "On A Rail" chapter of the game, which read "YORE DEAD FREEMAN", "SURRENDER FREEMEN", "DIE, FREEMAN", the latter of which is accompanied by 1 or 2 tripmines. Freeman quickly became a priority target of the troops. Gordon Freeman, who was able to sneak and fight his way across the facility despite all the HECU's actions, being responsible for many casualties on their side. Surviving facility personnel lent their help to Dr. The tide soon turned against the HECU, though, as the Xen aliens continued teleporting into Black Mesa in overwhelming numbers. Although there were few of them, there were also some snipers, one of which shot at and fatally wounded a security guard. The troops began fortifying key surface areas with sandbags, mounted machine guns, and fixed artillery. The HECU soon took control of Black Mesa's central command areas and issued orders over the public address system for the facility's remaining personnel to cooperate and submit to interrogation. Black Mesa's civilian personnel failed to put up any notable resistance, as many personnel mistakenly believed that the Marines were there to rescue them, and those who tried to defend the facility against the HECU were hopelessly outgunned and overwhelmingly outnumbered, having already been weakened by the Xen creatures. The HECU's initial foray into Black Mesa was highly successful: the Marines quickly gained an advantage over the confused and frightened survivors and aliens and established a substantial presence within the facility. Many Marines disagreed with their orders. The HECU rapidly takes over the surface areas of Black Mesa using their V-22 Ospreys to drop in men and then dispatches forces into the interior to eliminate the aliens, Black Mesa Security Force, and bring important members of the Science Team up to the surface for brutal interrogation. Unknown to the surviving personnel at Black Mesa, though, the Marines have also been ordered to eliminate Black Mesa's civilian personnel to ensure that the incident is covered up. The Hazardous Environment Combat Unit is dispatched to the facility to fight the aliens and regain control of Black Mesa. They are featured in Half-Life, and its expansion packs, Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay.įollowing the catastrophic Resonance Cascade at the Black Mesa Research Facility, bizarre aliens from Xen teleport into the complex and begin attacking personnel. They especially hate you, Gordon Freeman, personally - because you have cut down quite a few of their buddies. The more you know about the project, the more they want to kill you. It is their job to execute anyone with knowledge of the research project that went awry. Human military units sent in to "clean up" the base following the disaster. In the Half-Life Audio Script, the HECU Marines are described as follows: The HECU are part of a "dangerous and very efficient clean-up crew", and are supposed to work in concert with the Black Ops and the Black Mesa Security Force. The Marines of the HECU are specially trained to deal with a variety of indoor combat situations, particularly involving a dangerous environment and unconventional enemies.